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Mick Harvey, "One Man's Treasure"
The world’s longest serving Bad Seed releases another album of covers. Unfortunately it's not another Serge Gainsbourg tribute, but a collection of songs that Harvey felt a strong connection to by such songwriters as Lee Hazelwood, Tim Buckley and Guy Clark. Without hearing it, I knew exactly what was going to sound like: a depressed cowboy with a drink in one hand and a battered guitar in the other.The album retains the playfulness and light heartedness of Harvey’s Intoxicated Man and Pink Elephants (the Gainsbourg albums). The opening track “First St. Blues” is the sound of a solitary wanderer ruminating on the world. This is a common theme to the album as Harvey obviously identifies with songwriters who procrastinate and philosophise while looking down on a whiskey in a dusty bar. Songs like “Louise” and “Man without a Home” continue the lonesome cowboy vibes. Listening to the album makes me imagine Harvey working in a studio with swing doors from a saloon and a horse tied up outside. His version of Guy Clark’s “Hank Williams Said It Best” (the lyrics of which give the album its title) is as good as the original and is worth getting the album for alone.
One thing about One Man’s Treasure, which could be either avirtue or a fault depending on your views, is that it sounds like theBad Seeds. “Demon Alcohol” being the most reminiscent, sounding like aless aggressive “Loverman.” Harvey does embellish the Bad Seed templateand makes it his own: his voice is far removed from Cave’s. Whencovering Cave’s “Come into My Sleep,” Harvey keeps the song distantfrom the original. The music sounds that bit lighter and fresher andHarvey’s voice has a gentler tone to it.
One Man’s Treasure is a good record, it’s not a groundbreaking album by any means. Mick does exactly what is expected of him: a dozen covers of alt-country’s gentry made with a lot of love and respect for the originals. He doesn’t reconstruct the songs in an attempt to gain credibility with the serious musical elite, he just sticks to being a singer of songs. Much like his other CDs, I can’t see myself playing this to death but I know I’ll be digging it out from time to time when those cowboy blues set in (most likely after watching the Sergio Leone collection).
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